How Internet and Social Media Adoption Relate to Global Well-Being in the Digital Age

Join the Cyber Policy Center on Tuesday, March 12th from 12 Noon–1 PM Pacific, for How Internet and Social Media Adoption Relate to Global Well-Being in the Digital Age, with Andrew K. Przybylski, Professor of Human Behaviour and Technology at the University of Oxford. The session will be moderated by Nate Persily, co director of the Stanford Cyber Policy Center, and is part of the Winter Seminar Series, a series spanning January through March hosted at the Cyber Policy Center.

This talk will provide a historic and empirical perspective on how we might understand the links that might link the adoption and use of the internet, mobile broadband, and social media to longer-term trends in mental health and psychological well-being. Starting with a review as to why this question is important and ways this question has been asked over time it will cover how we have understood and tested the idea. The heart of the talk is a review of three global studies examining technology and wellness across the last two decades with a special emphasis on methodology and representativeness. The talk closes with a reflection on what these kinds of studies can and cannot show us as well as cautions about the perils of oversimplifying a complex global phenomenon. Avenues for future research, the formidable challenges ahead, as well as the value of transparent, reproducible, and diverse research will be explored.